


The Anomaly of SOULS and the Nature of Wishes

by cypherd



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, Gen, Mentions of Death, Spoilers, mentions of physical harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-15 03:20:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15403812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cypherd/pseuds/cypherd
Summary: Or is that the other way around?Homura has a mission she will do anything to succeed in. No matter where that may take her or what she has to do. Sans suspects that the anomaly will return in some form. Kyuubey has discovered a SOUL already touched by magic that he is very interested in.





	1. Wearing your heart...er...SOUL on your...

**Author's Note:**

> This is a crossover fanfiction between Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Undertale. It is important to note that a full understanding of all spoilers for both the series and the game is required to read this fanfiction (or well, not really but it is if you don't want spoilers for either series.)

"Hey Alphys?" 

"Sorry to drop in on ya like this, but I need yer help with--"

"Oh SANS!" 

It was Sans and a human. She was older than Frisk by a few years and dressed quite prettily if a bit unusually in a short skirt, white blouse and diamond-pattern high stockings, long dark flowing hair tied back with a red ribbon that was in danger of falling out. Her expression was rightfully panicked, with wild, rolling eyes, but if Alphys had to guess as a long time panicker herself, she was in the process of coming down from something much worse. 

She was also clearly Japanese, which offered some clue as to why she had been brought here, to her.

"So. Can ya talk to her?"

Alphys wrung her claws together. "Ah...I don't k-know Sans, I only know words like...like  _ Itadakimasu _ ."

Even under the circumstances she could feel a faint heat rise to her cheeks as she recalled what other kinds of words she knew from her long standing manga and anime hobby.

This however wasn’t the time for embarrassment over hentai.

"But ah - ah if it's simple questions...I...I may be able to..."

"A’ight never mind. To start, check her stats."

It was with a great deal of trepidation  that Alphys stepped forward to do as requested..

Sans' blue magic had the human pinned to the floor but in an odd sort of position, stretched out on her side where she wriggled like a beached fish trying to physically shake free of the influence. That aside, she was not prepared for what she would find

"Stars." she whispered, her gaze flicking from the human to Sans and back again.

Alphys had braced for the tragedy of a level absurdly high for a child. It happened and it was never pretty regardless of circumstances. However the Japanese girl's LV and HP fluctuated wildly. It hovered in the 1 ballpark and then spiked all the way up to 20, then jittered back down to a 2. As for her HP, it was more steady, but still dropping by the barest fractions of fractions at a slow but consistently incremental rate.

There was only one other individual she had ever seen anything remotely like that happen to, and he was here and also presently the girl's captor.

"So." said Sans, all traces of good humour gone. "You think you know a few more words of Japanese than that?"

Alphys couldn't respond. She was already coming pretty close to joining the human in hysteria. Her scientific check of the girls’ magic and SOUL having sussed out the reason why she was restrained in such an unusual way. She was familiar with Sans’ talent for Blue magic, and knew from Undyne that Papyrus’ behaved the same way. She was also aware of Sans’ Karma ability but whatever was draining her HP was not from Sans, nor was Sans’ drain designed to work that slowly. She’d been asked to step outside her Engineering comfort zone to deal with SOULS and aspects and Determination. None of this was how it worked, even with her relative inexperience and the mistakes that had wrought. She knew that for a fact. None of this made sense.

And the oddest thing of all...

Alphys backed off a step, but lifted her head to look Sans in the face. "Stars above Sans, what in Asgore's name is wrong with her SOUL?"

"I was hopin' you could tell me. Far as I know humans don't wear 'em on the backs of their hands." 

“I speak English, you know.” 

The girl had finally gotten hold of herself. It was impressive really given her age, and definitely eerie. 

Sans on the other hand displayed no surprise.

Apparently, her English was also extremely good.. Much more so than most students of her age who studied a second language.

"So, are-are you bilingual, Homura?" Alphys tried for some normalcy. An easy question the girl wouldn’t be afraid to answer.

"Nope." Sans answered for her as though he knew, even as the girl asked a question of her own instead.

"How did you know my name?"

"We found out when we CHECKED you. But you're not bilingual, are you. You've just had lots of time to practice." 

Alphys said nothing.to it, though she shot Sans a look she hoped was somewhat reproachful. She liked Sans for the most part. He was usually rather nice, a fellow procrastinator but a better scientist than her and he certainly could be helpful. Then sometimes he pulled this kind of behaviour, where he would make comments that suggested he'd been snooping through your browser history - or-or something. 

While his observations were astute enough, she knew this wasn't what Homura needed right now. She put her hands up in a gesture that in retrospect seemed more defensive than placating. 

“Perhaps if you s-stayed, Sans w-would let you...g-go. I m-might be able to help with...whatever is drainng your HP….?”

* * *

Homura had been prepared not to be the only magical girl to arrive in Ebbott with the reports of crazy monsters.

"Hey girl, don't bother. " One Black girl in a shimmery blue tutu that clashed spectacularly with her grouchy expression and the ugly looking (but magically fading) bruise staining her cheek huffed as she sat down in an airport terminal chair, glancing askance at Homura’s plainly visible soul gem and targe.  "This town's a bust."

Homura however was long practiced in keeping a low profile. The amount of witch activity was enormous here, but everyone knew humans couldn't see Witches, and their victims definitely hadn't started obtaining a high track record of escaping on their own in the middle of broad daylight.

Still ...she knew she needed to be here. It was the same sense that compelled her to keep trying to save Madoka.

With over 100 timelines under her belt it shouldn't be too hard to blend in. With her flawless English, advanced maths and high grades in every subject, it took little effort to fake the documents marking her her as a young prodigy on an international exchange trip from a high school in Mitakihara Japan instead of a barely-out-of-the-hospital transfer student just returning to school.

It hadn't been too long before she met the Magical Girl who had claimed this place as her territory.  The girl was understandably upset (and had probably been the reason for the airport Magi’s displeasure and bruises) but as it turned out  Katherine 'Kitty' Ward was more than experienced enough to be reasonable. Homura suspected that if Mami had been a more level headed person in the face of learning the sick truth about the nature of Magical girls, a personality like this Kitty girl would have been the result. With less swearing however. Wow, westerners liked to swear.

"I suppose you can't help having to be here if you're still in school." she'd said as they ate some fast food lunches in a quiet corner of the local park away from anyone interested in overhearing them. "Stay away from the Monsters. There's some powerful grief around this mountain, but they're not the cause of it. A couple of your twit friends..."

"They're not my friends." Homura told Kitty calmly.

"Fine, a couple of those other Magi tried some shit with the Monsters, but the dummies didn't even realize they weren't in a Labyrinth. Thankfully it seemed like the monsters were expecting something like that...or something. Oddest thing I’ve ever seen; it was like they expected the people who attacked them to be kids....but….I don’t think they knew what witches were. Or saw them….”

She trailed off. Homura stored the information but it seemed that more importantly Kitty had never experienced anything like Walpurgisnacht. Good to know.

"I don't think Kyuubey has any interest in them, but hey he's been skulking around, so who the hell knows what the little freak is thinking." she continued, flicking a chicken nugget through her fingers like some people did with coins.

"You don't like the Incubator?" Homura asked, watching the hand movement.

"...Incubator? What’s? Oh, um yeah, you're foreign. Guess ‘Kyuubey’ sounds like that to you huh? Well...I....don't know how much you know, but hm, let's just say that I plan on going out the honourable way." 

"I understand that." said Homura with a nod. “I feel the same way.” It didn't shock her that this girl knew the truth. She wondered if it had happened that Kitty had seen someone like Sayaka fall to her grief or whether it had been a last-ditch on Kyuubey’s part to get what he wanted from someone who wasn’t paying out as quickly as he’d like. Such tough magi were rare but they certainly existed (With 100 timelines she herself was testament to that) and Kitty seemed to be the type to handle emotional upheaval well. Besides, Homura noticed her careful wording. She hadn’t been hoping to shock her into a transformation for a free grief seed. 

So Kitty went into the ‘trustworthy’ pile. She’d give the girl her space a few days, show she wasn’t going to double cross her and then organize another lunch date to find out what else she knew about these monsters. Whatever help the other girl did or did not decide to give her would be fine, she could be sure that Ebott would be in good hands. Even better than Mitakihara would fare. She could sacrifice one timeline to find out what this place needed to tell her, then go back.    
  
As it turned out, that lunch date wasn’t to happen, given she was getting some first-hand experience.  


* * *

Finding shelter for herself was a job that started out proving to be more difficult than anticipated. Ebott wasn't even a quarter of the size of Mitakihara and most otherwise abandoned housing she could have squatted in was now occupied by the monster population. The old ramshackle building was being fixed up by the Monster’s monarchs as a school and was already in shape to have classes. There were reams of construction crews on the mountain pathways shoring up the cave structures and creating proper paths. She could slip by them perhaps, but that would involve using more magic and fighting more witches.

On that note she had briefly she entertained the idea of asking Kitty to pose as her hosting student, but as reasonable as the local magi might be, two Magical Girls living in such close quarters was inviting disaster.

Her first stroke of luck came when she found the school administration office had done it for her, having swallowed her 'exchange student' story hook line and sinker. As it turned out Ebott High had themselves an exchange student; Ashley or Annie or something who was off to Europe somewhere and so with a student coming in to take her place, they had come to the logical solution. 

Ashley/Annie's parents were plenty nice, but Homura barely paid them any attention save to set up in their daughter’s temporarily vacated room. She'd have to take the extra time to muss up the bed a little every morning but Homura liked to have a room with her information available.  . She wasn't stupid, she knew those powers were not a part of her but rather the first vestiges of her Witch's labyrinth, whomever she might be. The risk versus the reward of maintaining it was an ideal trade off for Homura's tactical, organized mind. It would be strange however not to have it filled with the movements of Walpurgisnacht’s advent for a change.

The host family turned out to be nice. Really nice. 

“We can make you anything you’d like for breakfast dear. Even something Japanese if you’d prefer.”

“Whatever you are having will suffice.”

That was the correct response it seemed. “How polite.” she heard the mother mumble under her breath as she fixed her a plate.

She meant it when she said that what turned out to be baked beans on toast was fine - and it was actually. She even felt almost like a normal school girl as she set off to sell her first day of the cover story.. 

As she approached she thought she spotted Kitty standing with another group of Senior 2 girls, none of them Magi. She really did seem to be the only other one around. 

/Good morning, Homura./ Yes, that was her, using their telepathic path through the rat to connect as Magi could. She had expected nothing less than to be kept an eye on, and not necessarily because of camaraderie or any imagined personal bond.

/Good Morning, Kitty./ she responded with equal detached politeness, the lack of honorifics and titles and surnames ringing oddly in her head. 

She had been provided with whatever-her-name-was’ empty locker and though she had no books, it provided her with a further opportunity to look around the area. There were no High School monsters...or perhaps even the older ones preferred to go to the elementary Monster school. In fact...she had yet to see one at all, but perhaps that was a good thing.

Her schedule had been altered from the norm; another trick of her magical persuasion. She definitely wasn't supposed to have as many spare periods as she did but she concluded she might get away with it considering she intended on spending them researching in the library as much as possible.

What else? Kitty had told her Kyuubey had been sniffing around, though she had yet to spot him either. Was Kitty, like her, thwarting his efforts to contract new girls (one particular girl)? Or was he also investigating the monsters? Whatever he was doing here, she needed to be doing here, though it struck her as odd she hadn’t seen him yet. 

/What was he doing to--/

She fingered the red ribbon in her hair. “Madoka…”

“Hey watch it!” 

She jumped, having realized she’d managed to stop dead, right in the middle of the hall. 

“S-Sorry.” she gasped.

“Whatever. Fuckin’ freshmen.” the student pushed his way around her and continued on his way into a classroom on the right.

She sighed and followed his lead to carry on to her first subject of the day herself.

As a normal, non-Magical girl math had been her worst subject, made no better by the stage fright induced by being called upon to try solving problems on the board in front of the class. By now, she'd gotten over both...

"Um, Homura? Homura? Miss ah - Miss Akemi?"

Startled finally into being addressed by her first name by a teacher (right, Westerners), she glanced up with a start.

"I'm sorry dear, you must still be so tired from your flight. It’s my mistake. I’ll have one of the other students do this problem."

Homura glanced up at the board and immediately realized her mistake. Oh, the answer was correct, alright...for the problem she'd solved a hundred times without thinking on her 'first day' in the classroom with Madoka.  Embarrassment she hadn't felt in a long time prickled at her as she scrubbed chalk quickly off the board.

"I'm sure you're right Miss Thomas. I must be still tired. I can do the problem correctly however." 

She did, but barely heard Miss Thomas' words of praise. Such a stupid mistake. Stupid mistakes got you killed. She resolved to focus until she could escape properly to think, but the ordeal wasn’t over quite yet.

These kids seemed less impressed with feats of Mathematics, but despite her slightly stupid mistake to start, her new Ebott peers seemed interested to talk to her. 

"Where are you from?”

“Mitakihara. In Japan.”

“Oooh, I heard they have such pretty architecture. My Mother went there on business once!”

"Do you play any sports? International students are allowed to join teams and we need a good third Singles player on the tennis team..."

In some ways it was no different than how it would play out if she were at home. There were kids interested to see if she wanted to join their after school activities or sports teams, some that wanted to hear about life in Japan, one or two interested to see if she had a boyfriend waiting for her, a few who asked her about anime and if she watched any. She rattled off the names of a few shows that Madoka - who had been the fan - had liked, said her favourite subject was History and picked the track and field team like she did at home, knowing hurdles and the 800 meter and long jumps were all useful training for Witch battles.  Dodged the boyfriend question and most others by just letting them think the stereotypes about the overly studious Japanese students were true. 

The funny thing was, the Homura before her transformation had, in addition to being shy and sickly, been an especially poor student. She’d never liked homework, dodged her mother’s attempts to enrol her in cram school or find her tutors, was glad that her illness had kept her from sports and had always wanted to be in one of the popular clubs where cool, pretty people knew who you were even if you were the secretary, but simply couldn’t work up the gumption to spend that much time in the company of others.  Now that she had all the talent and self-confidence she could ever want, she longed for the invisibility of her shy beginnings. Not for want of freedom from her Magical Girl duty, but so she could focus on what mattered: Finding the combination of actions that would finally save Madoka.

She'd finally escaped to the library for her first ‘study hall’ and started for the HIstory stacks.

"Oh! Excuse me! Miss Homura Akemi?"

/Now what?/ She composed her face into a smile. "Yes ma'am?"

The woman who had been sitting in the front check out area when she had come in held out a stack of books towards her. "These were put on reserve by another student for you. "

"I'm sorry. You must have me confused with someone else. I'm an exchange student."

"Oh no." the woman insisted, giving the books at little thrust towards her chest. "They were put on hold by Miss Katherine Ward. She's one of our prefects and I’m sure she definitely meant you as I know all the students. You are Homura Akemi, the exchange student in Upper Two from Japan, isn't that right?" 

Who was Kather--Oh , that was Kitty. Right.

Aloud she said. "Of course. Thank you Ma'am.”

The History section seemed fairly deserted, so Homura found a cubicle and took a look at what had been given to her for the first time. The book on top read 'Myths and Legends of Mount Ebott." It was a slim volume, evidently intended for a slightly younger audience, like the reader she’d had about Izanagi and Izanami. She pulled it close and began to read.

Unsurprisingly it predated the monsters’ emergence by a good number of years, but across all the stories - the Indigenous Spiritual Accounts, the Fairy Stories and what Immigrant settlers brought in, there was one constant line.

_ Those who dared to climb Mount Ebott did not return.  _

A master researcher would have put that commonality down to shared storytelling traditions or anthropological concerns.

Any Magical Girl worth her salt knew that meant Witches.  
  


* * *

It was hard, even for someone like Homura to feel afraid of witches or anything else in the sunny afternoon day, walking home from school. As she detoured past the park, it finally happened. Up the opposite side of the street coming towards her there was a young elementary school-age child, walking along with a ...well if that was a Monster, Kitty had been more than correct when she had dubbed the Magi who had flocked to Ebbott 'stupid' for entertaining the idea that Monsters could be related to Witches. True, size or looks were no indicator of a Witch's power; she'd seen pretty ones no larger than a toy devastate seasoned, high-powered magical girls with a single blow and sinfully ugly Kaiju fall to a light breeze. But this stripey, almost ugly-cute lizard was chattering a mile a minute to the human kid about something apparently quite interesting and a little bit funny. whipping its tail as it trotted along to maintain balance.

They passed by on the opposite side of the street to her and the human kid glanced in her direction, giving her a bright smile and a wave as they passed. 

For the second time that day, Homura felt a genuine rush of affection, even surprising herself by waving back. Something about the kid and the host-family’s parents, they reminded her of Madoka...or maybe just Madoka's family. Maybe it was just triggered by how long it had been since someone treated her like their child.

She had just decided she might seem like she was staring and made to turn away when she spotted a patch of white fluff in her peripheral vision.

Quicker than a flash a rock was in her hand, and she'd just drawn her arm back to huck it at that awful Kyuubey, when the puff of white wrestled its way out of the underbrush. and it was only by sheer control that Homura stayed her throw.

It was nothing more than a fat, fluffy puffball of a little dog that trotted around the the kids feet, sniffing and snorting and begging the children to play with it.

And there she was, still standing with a large rock in her fist ready to let it fly, the children staring at her in horror at the idea that she would harm a sweet little dog.

"I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I thought..."

She tore her eyes away and fixed herself to harden against the shocked and disappointed look the children had given her. She stood there, watching them go, still trying to think of a lie that would placate them; a way to finish that sentence. It felt like Madoka all over again, just wanting to talk to her. The anguish she had to bite down on watching her face fall when she took out her rage on Kyuubey, not knowing what he was and seeing her think her so cruel when the devious rat was the cruel one. To tell her, to explain the truth and beg her to listen only to have her contract and contract and contract and...

...and suddenly, she realized why this felt so increasingly like Madoka as before her eyes the duo of children disappeared into an obvious ripple in the air, while the little white dog scampered along, then turned with a confused look that would have been comical had the situation not suddenly become so dire.

Homura transformed then and there on the overcast, empty and eerily quiet street which had gone silent as the grave in the instant the witch had hatched from its seed. Her gem pulsed like a heartbeat and she followed it towards the ripple, disappearing as well, much to the consternation of the white dog.

* * *

It was explained, particularly to rookies that witches ‘ate’ humans, but the concept wasn't necessarily literal. They had no specific taste for meat or food unless it was a part of their ‘nature’ for the most part, so the dog had passed by the barrier unharmed  While Homura had seen some that would eat a flesh and blood body and had faced iterations of Charlotte enough times to have seen what became of Mami’s remains, what all witches were most interested in ‘consuming’ was the grief. The turmoil of emotions of their victims whose most hidden negative emotions they stirred up to lure them in, the real fear of those lucid enough to see their last moments, the despair felt by those left behind to wonder and grieve for the loss of their children and friends and lovers without closure

Although Homura tried to convince herself everything that happened so long as Madoka lived was worth it, some part of her still clung to the idealism that it was possible to save everyone. That that was the true job of a Magical Girl…but, she supposed that was all Madoka’s doing in the end too. That was the way she thought.

She moved quickly into the labyrinth, the familiars fluttering around, but not yet impeding her progress. Their mistress hadn't fully awoken yet and the tiny frogs with the almost comically bulbous mouth sacks they puffed were slow and muzzy. 

It didn't stop Homura from taking the time to burrow some flash bombs in their midst. 

Some Magical Girls met an inauspicious end by ignoring  the apparently docile familiars only to fail to reach the Witches chambers before she woke and be swarmed, succeeding only in granting the one that dealt the killing blow an evolution into a witch proper. 

But whether it had been necessary or not, Homura’s haste served her, as the doors flew past her signalling she’d triggered the trap that drew victims into the centre. This was the real fight and she prayed she wouldn’t be too late.

To her surprise, the witch was active and moreover the human child was dodging its attacks admirably, but they seemed confused. Not for the giant monster they were suddenly facing when moments ago they’d been in the street, but more like they were waiting for something that wasn’t happening.  It occurred to her fleetingly that the child might be a Puella Magi themselves, but the notion was just as swiftly dismissed as impossible.

Time to put an end to this. She rolled out another flash bomb (She would have to find somewhere better to procure her weapons than the Ebott Police Station).

With a flip of its tail, the comically giant tadpole thrashing in the puddle sized pond took its eyes off the child and belched a stream of bubbles at her. She ducked to avoid them and they sizzled dangerously on the wall behind her. Homura had no desire to discover if that was because they were acid or boiling. 

The tousle haired child and the armless lizard she could see hiding behind a scorched rock nearby watching the encounter both turned towards her, but their faces were soon frozen midway through the first vestiges of recognition as she turned the timer on her targe. In the greyness of the time stop, she began to assess the situation. Making the tadpole swallow a bomb probably wouldn't work; she'd be just as likely to get it barfed back into her face when it blew those bubbles. 

She drew a handgun from her targe's space and closed the distance, pressing it against its eye and fired.

Even though she'd done it a million times, it was still so odd to feel the bullet leave the gun and then see it suspended there as she pulled away and it was left hanging outside her influence of time control. 

Around to the other side; bullet two. A good high jump and the rest of the chamber would be emptied into the creature's head from the top. She wasn’t sure if Witches had brains but experience told her headshots were generally as effective on the ones that had them as they were on any organic animal.

She landed to watch, this time from a hiding spot and re-started time. The witch had barely enough opportunity to blink before it was had six bullets in it, erupting in a wave of filth that magically disappeared with the labyrinth. 

The two kids found themselves back in the street, blinking confused and owlishly around

Homura took advantage of their disorientation to engineer one more time stop. She needed to get the grief seed. 

/Ah there. By the storm drain. Lucky it didn’t roll/

As she bent to pick it up, she suddenly found herself knocked off balance face first into the ground, as though she'd just slipped on ice….

...or been pushed.

"Kitty?" she guessed. This had to be magic...she’d misjudged the other magi….and...a more pressing issue made itself readily apparent - the fact that her hand was 'glued' to the ground. No, more than that...as though her Soul Gem was magnetized to the ground...but...there wasn’t enough pressure to crack it. 

She’d do it herself if she struggled and against every instinct she fell still, trying to fight the rising panic back.

Two feet came into her line of vision, but she barely noticed them in favour of the fact that she’d just realized something even more odd than the magic binding her or why it was so focussed on her Soul Gem. 

_ Time was still frozen. _

"Interesting trick."

The voice did not belong to a girl, and definitely not a witch (who at best giggled or screamed).This was a rather deep male voice. An adult? Here?

The world did a backflip into darkness. 

  


  
  



	2. What Kind of Mission Is Really Worth Risking Everything You Have?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not my favourite thing I've ever written - but there's a few people in this world with something to prove, things they find useful and maybe just those looking for some direction in life. Maybe a few who really believe that a miracle is possible, particularly when it concerns the people they still love and care for, even if it's only the memory of such a feeling.

It was with a herculean effort and several lifetimes of practice that Homura managed to get her emotions under control. She knew full well what allowing herself to process too much hopelessness and negativity could lead to. However, that wasn’t to say that the current situation wasn’t immensely dangerous, verging on untenable. Or...or, some other word that wasn't _hopeless_.

_But he knows._

From her limited vantage point on the floor, the Puella Magi tried to get a good look at her surroundings. There was lots of equipment lying about: a reasonably short workstation that was in viewing range carried a variety of foreign objects that may or may not have been monster made, but also a selection of identifiable tools. Everything seemed to be either in a state of repair or perhaps under construction. Someone here was a procrastinator; as the pre-Madoka Homura could deduce from personal experience.

If nothing here worked, it made the question of how her captors possibly have known her name all the more perplexing, as though she was wearing a big neon sign that said 'Magical Girl'.  It wasn’t like she wrote her name in her clothes or carried around a lot of identification when she could just ‘disappear’ before being questioned. The school hadn’t even given her her student ID yet. She didn’t much bother carrying around her debit card or even money. Maybe some other magical girls found comfort in mundane ‘human’ reminders like sleeping, eating and doing ‘normal’ things for a girl her age but the possibility of a future with Madoka was all the grounding that she needed.

_So if that’s it, then focus, Homura Akemi. You’re here for Madoka._

A hundred yards. That was the furthest she could get before her soul gem lost operational control of her body. If Skeleton and Lizard had her soul somehow pinned to the ground, she could still control her body independently...if she could just slip out of her targe, maybe she could grab it and get away.

Or was that too risky? How solidly was it magnetized to the floor? On the other hand, the way she was now, she was putting quite a bit of pressure on her hand. Soul gems were pretty sturdy but whatever magic was at work here was of a kind she was not familiar with. What if she only damaged it. Dead was dead, but she couldn’t stay here forever or wait for these two to find more permanent ways of restraining her.

Just as Homura was working up the nerve to run this plan, there was a bright tone that rent the air and she felt the weight on her Soul Gem ease off. 

She got to her feet swiftly and stared down the duo.

With all the unfamiliar magic drained away, her first reaction was almost to wonder how she could have panicked in the first place. Maybe the two would look a bit scary to someone who hadn't seen Witches, but even that was fairly hard to imagine right now. Each was only barely different in height than herself, with the lizard wearing a rather wrinkly labcoat and almost quailing for all the good it was doing her behind the Skeleton who dressed like it was laundry day in an over sized T-shirt and clean but tatty track shorts and old house slippers that had at one point been fuzzy but had become sort of snowballed and grubby.

Neither of them made any further moves, apparently waiting for her to react.

Should she just just turn and leave? Ask questions? Threaten them?

"Why--" she started, but was swiftly interupted.

"Eh, seemed to me you'd come up with an escape plan. Figured I'd save you the trouble."  The Skeleton spread his hands in a sort of blase shrug. Behind him the Lizard wrung her talons but said nothing herself.

Homura backed up a pace and almost echoed a few of her new schoolmates’ choice curse words. How did this guy keep wrong-footing her so easily?

She looked him right in the pinpricks of light in his sockets.  "I have a mission to protect someone dear to me. I suggest that you do not get in my way, or I will not be responsible for my actions."

She promptly spun the dial stopped time and forced herself to walk as confidently and purposefully as possible towards the exit, a straight shot out of the building.

Outside the sky had dimmed considerably, though there was probably an hour or so left of daylight before the sun disappeared.

She turned back towards the building she'd just exited. Ah. Part of the University campus it seemed…

...and froze. There, leaning against the doorway was Skeleton man, giving her a ...cheerful? Mocking? Friendly little wave, just, she supposed so she would remember her magic didn’t work on him. How had he followed her? She hadn't heard a thing!

Still trying to squash down the feelings of total helplessness, she restored the passage of time to normal - why waste magic that wasn’t presently doing her any good - and throwing caution to the wind, took off at a run, not stopping until she found herself on the street of her host family.

She pasted a calm, neutral expression on her face and let herself inside.

“I’m home!”

* * *

Papyrus could feel the curious eyes on him as he stood in the short, mid-day line at the Mount Ebott Grocery Store.  The other two in the queue: a human past middle age with her hair in a bun was presently waiting while the cashier started ringing up a bag of apples, a film wrapped packet of chicken thighs and a large container of yogurt. She was closely followed by a young human with a basket rather similar to Papyrus’ own. He took a moment to take inventory of his errand for the day. There was his usual Spaghetti ingredients - jar of sauce, bag of noodles, packet of mince, a bag of Potato Crisps (something almost identical to 'Popato Chisps'), A few varieties of tinned soups and sauces and Sans' ...requests which  - he was fairly sure were far less healthy than let on, but weren't all that expensive so he supposed he could let it slide. Strange how priorities changed above ground. Besides, most of the humans seemed to buy the same, so it couldn't be all bad.

He noticed the other human behind him browsing through a magazine, clearly on the pretext of looking up at him every so often.

Papyrus didn't mind the attention of course. He’d be happy to answer any questions if she asked, but she didn’t, so he continued to wait.

“ID, please” the cashier said idly to the human in front of him, as he set down a six of some brand of beer.

The human flashed over the requested card, and the cashier nodded and continued to ring him through. Papyrus placed his items on the belt and waited his turn. He was paying so much attention to the exchange he almost didn't notice one last customer join their line. However, once he did the man was impossible to ignore.

The girl behind him who had been flipping through the Readers' Digest made a little sound of disgust. and edged up, banging into Papyrus' elbow.

“H..hey.” she half mumbled, glancing between Papyrus and the new addition to their queue.

The man meanwhile, who looked as though he'd just rolled out of bed - make that Sans' bed, maybe wearing last night's clothes that he had picked up from the local dump.  HIs eyes seemed glassy and vacant though his stare was unusually fixed. He shuffled forward, crowding the young girl into Papyrus again. There seemed to be no apologies forthcoming.

"S--Sorry..." she tried again, this time at Papyrus before flashing the offending fellow customer a look of annoyance.

The disheveled man continued forward undeterred as the poor girl dropped her basket, wove her way around Papyrus' side and ran, exiting at full speed past the customer shifting his bags, wallet and phone. He looked up a little surprised, but returned to his business blithely unaware of the continued oddness behind him.

"Thirty-nine-fifty."  The Cashier too was going through the motions of their job.

Papyrus sighed and hefted the girl's abandoned basket. "These too please." he said, unloading the items onto the cart before turning to address the man.

"Now see here, sir, I don't understand what you are doing, but I believe that young human needed her groceries. Fortunately I, the Great Papyrus will pay for them and take them to her, but it is a rather large hassle, as I do have a schedule."  he sighed. It was less than he was making it out to be if he was honest, he was pretty sure he’d noticed her before around one of the campus dorms. It was a good bet she lived there, so he could just press every call buzzer until he got it right.

The man looked at Papyrus again. His eyes were levelled directly at him, he wasn't blinking or squinting, but somehow the skeleton knew he probably could barely hear him. Whatever was on his mind, it was not something here in this grocery market.

And then, just like that, the man pushed around Papyrus just at the girl had done, but with that consistent lurching pace. In his hand he clutched a 50 of some form of alcohol. Papyrus brow bone furrowed.  He knew the effects of alcohol. He'd seen the effects of too much. He'd even actually been a little tipsy once or twice, but he didn't particularly make a habit of it. Everything about the man suggested he was completely intoxicated except for the fact he just wasn't drunk.

"Sixty-seven twenty." The cashier got his attention again. "Oh...right." He pulled out his debit card and tapped it against the pay terminal, separating the groceries of the girl he'd now have to find. His assessment that she was a local student was likely correct. Baby carrots, ramen, onions, crackers, bread, milk and orange juice, a box of off-brand cereal, two bags of pasta on special, a sleeve of square slices...seemed about right. .

Something was nagging at the back of his mind.

Something about the man again.

With the booze he hadn't...

The alarm to the store went off

"Oh shit." yelped the poor cashier, though there was a spark of something like interest in her eyes alongside the surprise, worry and panic; no doubt an (apparent) wino trying to walk out the door with unpaid for booze was the most interesting thing to happen on a Thursday in the middle of the afternoon shift for some time.

And then…

The human had wandered into the car park (without looking both ways!) when the blue minivan rounded the corner, The man didn’t speed up or try to move. Instead, he looked at it closing the distance like it was some epic event he had been waiting for all day.

Papyrus’ eye sockets went wide and he barely heard the splatter of the eggs he dropped as he flew down the short path between the checkout lane and the door.

The van screamed to a halt as the driver attempted to avoid mowing him down, managing the feat by a hair’s breadth.

“OH MY GOD!” shrieked a voice from inside the car, loud enough to be heard through the closed windows, and who could blame them?

“Uncle Curt!” It was a girl, probably a few years older than Frisk who came running up. “Gosh I’m SO sorry, he um. Has...alzheimers. He forgets where he is and well that he didn’t pay...and that he’s not supposed to have alcohol! My name’s Katherine Ward, I go to school here! I’ll get him back to the hospital. Come on, Uncle! This way!”

Papyrus blinked. She was lying. No, he didn’t have his brother’s savvy for reading people and he wasn’t a doctor but...he’d made food - healing food, even if he could admit it wasn’t ‘great’ by human standards for long enough he knew.

Did he have something on his neck though? Like a tattoo?

On the other hand, what business of it was his? The situation in the parking lot had been taken care of, even though that Katherine girl had lied. But, Papyrus mused as he paid to replace the eggs he'd smashed, no one got hurt...except, well, a dozen eggs, and the stolen items had been returned to the supermarket and it seemed that the girl had taken the man (maybe he really was her uncle? He seemed to want to go with her?) home while the frazzled driver had gotten to return to her day with no blood on his hands. It really wasn't any of his business.

Besides, he had some groceries to deliver.

Once he'd packed up the boot of his car, he was off. 

The Fox University Ebott satellite campus took up a mere city block which included three small student residences, which did make long-term parking a bit of a chore. Fortunately, Papyrus found a parking spot about a block and a half away, carefully carrying his bags up the street.  Maybe he should go into the residence offices? That might work better than pressing all the buzzers. Now what did the girl look like again...

"Ouch" said a voice, just as he stepped on something rather soft?

He stepped backwards, horrified.

"STARS I’m sorry! I didn't see you over..." He separated his arms, balancing one bag in each hand to see  who was at his feet. "I am however wondering why you would be doing something so dangerous as lying in the middle of the sidewal--"

The question died on his teeth as a creature gazed up at him. It was white and pastel pink  with little red eyes. A Rabbit monster of some kind?

No, that was silly.

"What kind of Monster are you? I thought I had made friends with everyone!"

"Oh, I'm not a monster." It sat up on its haunches and tilted its head up, the very picture of wide-eyed innocent curiosity.  "Though I do find you most interesting."

“Me too!” Papyrus enthused. “My name is Papyrus. I would like to talk further, but right now I am on a mission of some importance, bringing a student some items she left after an incident at the shopping market today.”

“And I am Kyuubey.” replied the not-a-monster. “Tell me about the incident at the Grocery Store Papyrus. I think I could tell you what has happened. I may not be right, but I think I have some kind of an idea. You must be curious, if you’ll let me walk with you on your mission.”

* * *

Sans let himself himself into the flat, strolling into the kitchen but stopping in the doorway. He certainly wasn’t hungry or thirsty but it was usually what he did when he came home, so he did it, but his thoughts quickly stymied his progress. He didn't LIKE the human - this Homura Akemi girl, but he wasn't entirely convinced she'd lied to him.  Someone like that girl couldn't completely hide her true feelings and Sans was very well practiced at discerning these subtleties.

Whomever was the subject of this ‘mission’ she was playing with a reset function to save, she meant business about it. Hey, he knew what that was like, but regardless it meant she was dangerous. Maybe he was a little jealous that she seemed to have gotten farther with the concept than he ever did.

The machine was still there - down in the underground in their now-abandoned home. Still broken, still useless. Just like him --

He slumped, only to straighten up a second later as the sound of his brother entering the flat compelled him to put on a brave face.

No, he didn't want to talk about it, not because he didn't think Papyrus would understand or because he would be unprepared for it or unable to deal, but he hardly understood things himself. How the hell had that girl gotten her soul into a wearable ...bracelet? Accessory? The kid - he'd always known (or at least strongly suspected) it was the kid - Frisk who had the reset power, so how did she get her hands on it? What in the world could provide humans with magic?  That had been magic. Dangerously close to his own brand.

"HELLO BROTHER!" Papyrus charged in, looking ...well, a little baffled himself. Cheerful, but thoughtful.

"What's up?" he asked easily.  “I ah, went to visit Alphys today.”

“THAT IS...NICE! I AM GLAD TO SEE YOU HAVE DECIDED TO SPEND TIME WITH SOME FRIENDS! I HAVE MADE A NEW ONE TODAY!”

"Yeah? This friend have a name?"

Sans kept his expression and voice neutral. The last time Papyrus had mentioned a little yellow flower as his new friend--.

"I think it the humans call it a Kyuubey."

"A...What? Who? Huh, that is kind of  a weird name for a human."

"Oh it wasn't a human. It has four paws, is white and red and has a fluffy tail."

Sans could have wiped his brow in relief. Surely Papyrus meant cat...or squirrel?

"Heh-h..." he started to laugh, but Papyrus wasn't done.

"Ah yes, Kyuubeys. Most...interesting creatures. But I was under the impression that human pet animals did not speak."

Sans honestly felt his HP drop by an increment.

Whatever Papyrus had gotten himself into now, he had at least gotten SOME kind of answer for what he’d be asking Homura the next time they had a...chat.

* * *

As ever, the shadows were occupied by more than one set of eyes. How fascinating to think that all this time this planet had a second species of creatures that had power to remove and replace a soul the way he could. It would seem that these Monsters could even compartmentalize them if they so wished, though they simply intended to use up the soul without ever letting it despair enough to control entropy. How wasteful. Then again however they had been stuck under a mountain for some time.

Had the mages of which the King Monster spoke of been some of his Magical Girls? Perhaps. Once Witches were gone and served their purpose he rarely thought about their human containers.. He flicked his tail. He was interested in the child of course, but it might be interesting to experiment with some of these monsters. They were so very entertaining....so many of them had something to prove. Souls with something to prove always made such interesting wishes. Wishes that might well have the power to achieve his goals.

He trotted down the street towards the residential area. There was always work to be done in the name of preserving the Universe from entropy. And of course, there was always a warm place to sleep for the night.

* * *

Frisk drummed their pencil eraser thoughtfully on the page of their mathematics workbook. . Normally they were pretty good at maths and liked to get through their homework quickly in favour of more interesting pursuits. Tonight however, the multiplication tables might as well have been written in sanskrit for all the sense they were making.

What had happened this afternoon?  First there was that human who had tried to throw a rock at Papyrus’ dog and then the street had gone away and it was like being in an encounter, but the monster had only screamed and writhed. And how come they could not see their soul or any kind of buttons. Then the dog-hater had shown up and suddenly they’d been back in the street like none of it had ever happened.

Frisk would have believed they'd passed out if MK hadn't said they’d seen it too. What a strange day.

Talk to Mum? Talk to Dad?

Frisk sighed.

No. No, they'd just gotten settled. They'd just gotten a home that felt like home. Friends.

"Frisk? Are you done with your homework?"

"No Mum...Not yet."

There was a silence followed by footsteps and Toriel's fuzzy head appeared in the door.

"Not yet? You do not require assistance my dear, do you?"

Frisk looked down at the sheet.

"No…” Talk to Mum?  “It’s just that...I'm thinking about something else."

Toriel sat on the edge of the bed. "It is a troubling thing that you are thinking about, is it not?" she asked. "Perhaps it is best if you told me."

Last chance to lie...No.

"Um. Can some monsters....start an encounter without acting?"

Toriel shook her head almost immediately. "Not at all my child, even that horrible flower was not immune to the laws of our magic.” She paused and her voice was grim. “Did someone start an encounter with you?"

"I...Maybe?"

The former Queen looked rightfully stricken.

"Who? Who was it child? It simply won't be allowed. I do not believe there is a monster that would attack you...but...I have been wrong before. Did they say why they did? "

"...a Tadpole? But...they didn't say anything. They just kind of yelled.""

"They yelled?"

"No. It was more like...screaming."

"They screamed at you? What did they say?"

"Nothing. It wasn't words. Just...noise. Huh.  Never mind Mum, I...expect it was a bad dream after all. "

"Toriel held their gaze a long while but eventually nodded. "Nonetheless I will speak to Asgore." An almost comical expression crossed her face as though it was actually causing her physical pain to admit this, but "I confess that during my sojourn in the ruins I was not familiar with the doings of my former subjects"

"It's okay Mum. I....I think I can focus on math now. What are we having for dinner."

"Chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy with carrots." Toriel answered. "And If you are good about the vegetables, I will have a apple crumble for dessert. It is something like a cake and a pie.” she said, looking more cheerful now that Frisk seemed a bit more like themselves.

They were grateful, not for the first time of their determination, applying themselves to their worksheet and then all that was left was the day's history passage, which they never liked nearly as much but read it with reasonable certainty that they could  answer some questions in class the next day.

Dinner was good, but they weren't convinced that confessing to Toriel had been the right thing to do. Not that they were unhappy about it, but they were pretty sure the serving of dessert was a little bigger than it usually was.

And yes, just before they turned off their bedroom light they could hear their mother's voice floating up the stairs. Though she couldn't exactly make out what was being said,  they knew by the unnaturally clipped tone that she had likely followed through on her phone call to Asgore.

Frisk sighed and rolled over.

"It wasn't a dream you know." .

Frisk sat up. The voice was high and cold but childish.  It almost sounded like…

"But I can explain it to you if you wish." A pair of round, bright red eyes blinked at Frisk from the general vicinity  of their bookshelf. There amidst the toys and books there was a flicker of movement. The creature looked like it could be a monster, but Frisk could tell immediately that it was not.

"You may call me Kyuubey.." the creature chirped. It didn't move its mouth, but then, neither did Sans half the time.

"... and the creature that you saw was a witch."

Frisk grabbed for a stack of their favourite bedtime stories.

"Oh not the silly green skinned humans from fairy tales, though many do eat humans." Frisk's eyes went wide and they were starting to be uncomfortably reminded of Flowey and his disarming little smile paired with cruel laughter.

"I am not trying to scare you Frisk Dreamurr.” the creature continued, giving  a catlike leap and landing just as gracefully on Frisk's bed. It padded into the child's lap and curled like the stuffed animal Frisk had mistaken it for. "That girl you saw, she wasn't trying to harm your friend's dog either. She was a magical girl and she saved you from the witch.  Probably many other people. too."

Frisk this time looked a little more interested. "A Magical Girl?" they repeated. "Like the Mages that sealed the Monsters away?"

The creature closed its eyes and stretched out on its back like the dog sometimes did when it was looking for a belly rub. Frisk decided to oblige it. It was very soft. "It is very possible. I am not sure myself, though I suppose it may be the case. After all, Magical Girls have been around for many, many years.”

There was a lull in the conversation while Frisk processed this, continuing to pet Kyuubey.

"In exchange for one wish I could turn you into a Magical Girl.  After all, you have quite a bit of potential, Frisk Dreamurr. You could make a truly miraculous wish.”

“Really?” They were really thinking about it now.

"Oh yes." Kyuubey flipped back up right and sat on his haunches, flicking his tail back and forth.

“But…” Frisk said at length. “I’m not really a girl.” And nor did they want to become one for that matter.

“Hm. Well, these days ‘girl’ is a little more ambiguous. I do understand, even though it is a shame.” Kyuubey hopped to the floor, giving a little shake. “If you ever change your mind, come looking for me. I’m always looking for new contracts.”

And then, with that the creature was gone, giving no clue as to how it had gotten out of Frisk’s room or in it to begin with.

Laying back and adjusting the blankets, Frisk curled up on their side. A single wish. A miraculous wish. There were so many things that could entail...and so many problems that could bring with it. The last time they’d made a ‘wish’, it had almost come true. They almost had disappeared into the mountain - for good, before they realized that wasn’t what they wanted after all. They could have ruined so many lives, but instead they’d gotten a family. Friends. A home life. No wish in the world was worth losing that.

_Sorry, Kyuubey. I don’t think we’ll talk again._

* * *

 

In the quiet wee hours of the morning while Frisk’s mind was at rest, someone else’s was racing. A miracle wish in exchange for superpowers eh?

While Frisk’s dreams were unburdened, Chara’s red eyes could just see getting their friend his soul back for good. And exchange for killing things? Things they were allowed to kill. Things that would be a challenge? That was barely a trade-up in their mind.

It might be time to take this old body out for another spin, given they had been so nice to offer it in the first place.


End file.
